


Jiggering and Jolleying

by pocky_slash



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-02
Updated: 2010-12-02
Packaged: 2017-11-04 12:04:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/393647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pocky_slash/pseuds/pocky_slash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Gwen gets a gift, Ianto tells a story, and chips are both consumed and not consumed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Jiggering and Jolleying

**Author's Note:**

> No beta on this baby. All mistakes are mine. It's a sort-of-almost missing scene to [Normal Tuesday Night](http://pocky-slash.livejournal.com/1488457.html) except how it's not really at all. "Jiggering and jolleying" is a for real pottery term. WHO KNEW? It's hilarious.
> 
> Today's offering is for [](http://nancybrown.livejournal.com/profile)[**nancybrown**](http://nancybrown.livejournal.com/) , who has not only made my life better by writing amazing fic, but hosted [](http://tw-femficfest.livejournal.com/profile)[**tw_femficfest**](http://tw-femficfest.livejournal.com/) and always leaves lovely comments on my stuff. Even the stupid stuff.
> 
> HAPPY HOLIDAYS, [](http://nancybrown.livejournal.com/profile)[**nancybrown**](http://nancybrown.livejournal.com/)!

All of Wednesday and most of Thursday stretched out between Date Night and Gwen and Ianto's usual Thursday night outing, but one of the conditions of both was that Gwen had to wait until Thursday night for Ianto to divulge the details of whatever bizarre or romantic thing Jack had suggested the previous Tuesday. Sometimes this meant Ianto coming round twenty minutes before the rugby match so they could get a word in before they were too busy shouting and cheering to care. Tonight it meant sitting in the pub, tapping her toes impatiently while Ianto ran an errand.

Gwen sipped her pint and glanced at the clock on the wall. Ianto wasn't late yet, but Jack had been in quite a mood on Wednesday morning and the suspense was driving her up the wall. She nibbled a chip, glanced at the clock on the wall again, and almost jumped out of her skin when a brown paper bag was abruptly deposited on the table in front of her.

"Christ, Ianto!" she said as he slid into the booth across from her. "You scared me half to death!"

"Sorry," Ianto said with a half-smile. He tapped the bag. "That's for you."

Curious, Gwen pulled open the top and peered down into it, before removing a mug. The ceramic was a bit thicker than she was used to and the rim was a little uneven, but it was smooth black and green and extra-large.

"It's gorgeous," she said.

"I made it," Ianto replied smugly.

Gwen glanced down at it again. "No!" she exclaimed, but even as she said it, she noticed his initials and the date etched on the bottom and came across a few other imperfections--there were clearly finger prints along the inside of the handle, and there were tiny bubbles in the glaze near the bottom. "When did you find time to make a bloody mug? Since when can you make things?"

"Tuesday," Ianto said. "Jack signed us up for _pottery class_."

Gwen snorted. "Oh my god," she said. "You're joking."

"I wish I was," Ianto said. "It had been days since we spent more than twenty minutes together that didn't involve one or both of us being unconscious, and he brings me to bloody _pottery class_." Ianto rolled his eyes and took a sip from the pint that Gwen had waiting for him.

"Chip?" she asked. He made a face.

"I don't know how you can manage to eat those bloody things after we spent all of Sunday seeing what those _creatures_ were putting into the chip oil," he said, looking vaguely green. Gwen popped another one into her mouth and shrugged.

"It wasn't these chips," she said. "Plus, iron stomach, me. I didn't even go off meat after the Beacons, like the rest of you lot." She tapped her temple. "Disconnect."

"You're mad," Ianto said, shaking his head. Gwen just smiled and ate another chip.

"Go on, then," she said. "Pottery class."

"RIght," Ianto said with one last grimace at Gwen's chips. "So, we get to the studio and it's filled with hippies and old couples. And me in my work clothes and Jack in his...." He made an elaborate gesture that Gwen took to mean 'ridiculous 1940s military fetish wear.' She nodded and gestured for him to continue. "I wanted to strangle him but he gets so invested in these bloody things and there are only so many times you can watch a man die by chip poisoning before you decide you're going to attempt to be kind for at least a week."

Just this morning, Ianto had snapped at Jack that if he didn't catch up on his backlog of paperwork, Ianto was going to set his desk on fire, so Gwen assumed that ship had sailed anyway, despite Ianto's best efforts.

"Everyone was staring at us, of course, which I'm rather used to, going out with Jack, but the instructor started talking and everyone began to pay attention to her and--" He paused and chuckled. "Well, the first thing you need to know is that the instructor was very enthusiastic and attractive, but also very clearly a lesbian. The second thing you need to know is that, it turns out, Jack is absolutely crap at pottery."

Gwen giggled. "Oh lord, I can only imagine!"

"So he spends the entire time trying to flirt with her and charm her, meanwhile he can't even roll his clay into a proper ball," Ianto continued. "And, as it so happens, apparently I had a hidden talent. I caught on very quickly, and the instructor took a shine to me, which just made Jack try harder to get her attention and ignore his project even more. At the end of the night, Jack made something that his grandmother might, charitably call an ashtray. And I made that."

He gestured towards the mug and Gwen picked it up to investigate it again. She was even more impressed to learn that it was Ianto's first attempt.

"Are you good at everything you do?" Gwen asked. "Honestly. It's a bit annoying, you know."

Ianto smirked and tried to give an innocent shrug. "I can't cook?"

"Well, neither can I, so that doesn't make me feel much better about myself," she said. She flicked a bit of chip at him and smirked back when he ducked out of its way.

"To make it all the more amusing," he added, "as we were leaving on Tuesday night, Miranda--that's the instructor--stopped me and asked me to come back again yesterday. Jack, of course, was convinced that it was so she could have her way with me."

"Was that why he was doing that 'I'm jealous and shirty but jealousy and shirtiness are for mere mortals, so I'll pretend everything's fine' thing all day yesterday?" Gwen asked.

"Mm," Ianto hummed in assent. "Of course, he wouldn't listen to my very reasonable reminder that Miranda is married to a very lovely woman--"

"And even if he did, he doesn't seem to understand that there are people in the world quite happy with being monogamous and limiting themselves to one gender," Gwen added and Ianto rolled his eyes.

"That too," he agreed. "But as it turns out, she just wanted me to glaze my mug so she could fire it. I thought the green suited you. I don't know why it bubbled at the bottom, there. I suppose I put the glaze on a bit too thick."

"It doesn't matter," Gwen said. "I love it. The little things give it character."

"Thanks," Ianto said, and Gwen detected just the hint of a blush spreading across his cheeks. "She also told me that I was welcome to come back any time, free of charge. She said it wasn't often someone picked up ceramic arts so quickly and that she thought I could be quite good. As long as I didn't bring my impatient, grabby tosser of a boyfriend back with me."

Gwen laughed so hard she was surprised she didn't shoot lager out her nose. "She didn't!"

"She did," Ianto said. "And, as it happens, they run classes on Thursday nights. So, I was thinking, next Thursday...?"

"Brilliant," Gwen said. "I'm sure I'll be crap at it, but it sounds fun." She smirked and took another sip of her pint. "I'll make something nice for Jack."

"There's a reason I love you best, Mrs. Williams," Ianto said, raising his glass and clinking it against hers. "Cheers, darling."

"Cheers," Gwen said with a grin.


End file.
